Opperman: Made in America

We’ve all seen the bumper stickers that say, “Out of a Job Yet? Keep Buying Foreign” with a patriotic American flag backdrop. It sure is a decent sentiment to encourage buying American-made products, but is it really possible?

A while back, my microwave stopped working and I decided to buy a new one. It was the perfect opportunity. I would buy a microwave made proudly right here in the good old USA. I did not need anything too fancy, just a regular microwave that was made by the greatest work force in the world. I had even decided that I would gladly pay a little more for my new American-made appliance, as it would most likely cost me a little more than its Chinese counterpart.

That evening I headed out to the store. I figured I would start at Menards. They usually have decent prices and often proudly advertise their “Made in America” sales. When I got there, they only had one brand, and it was made in China. I began to think that this might be a little harder than I anticipated.

My next stop was Best Buy. They had roughly six brands with various models to choose from, but each and every one of them was made in China. I should mention that it was not that easy to find out where the microwave was made. The display tags do not say, so you usually have to pull the box off the shelf and flip it over to see. In many cases, it only said “Hecho en China,” which my high school Spanish taught me means “Made in China.”

I wasn’t giving up. Now I was on a mission to find one single American-made microwave. I wondered if Target sold microwaves. They do — all of them made in China.

I left Target and decided to try again the next day, but then I saw Walmart. I did not hold out much hope since Walmart is notorious for selling Chinese-made products, but I stopped and went inside anyway. Before I even looked at prices, sizes, power levels and all of the other options available, I just started pulling boxes off of the shelf, flipping them over and hoping to find that precious “Made in America” stamp.

Then I found one! A microwave that was not made in China! Unfortunately, my enthusiasm was short-lived. It was made in Malaysia. Not exactly what I was hoping for. I left discouraged and thought about having a beer. At least Budweiser is still brewed here in Ohio.

That night I mentioned to a friend how much trouble I was having trying to find a microwave made in America. She said, “You should make your own. I’d buy it.” I thought about this for a minute, but then remembered something that I had recently seen on TV. A guy in England decided to make his own toaster from scratch. He even tried to smelt his own metal in his mother’s microwave, which was most likely made in China. As you can imagine, things did not turn out well with his toaster, so I decided against trying to make my own microwave.

The next day I started at Meijer. Once again, there were no microwaves that were not made in Asia. I was seriously starting to run out of stores in Toledo that sold microwaves. I decided to try Lowe’s, but ended up at Home Depot instead. I was again disappointed to find nothing made in the USA. However, they were having a good sale, and I did find by far the best deal I had seen on a microwave that fit my needs. I gave up. I bought a microwave that was made in China. I went home discouraged, but knowing that I had tried.

I still see those bumper stickers from time to time. I still appreciate the sentiment, but I have a little bit of a different viewpoint on the subject now. Who knows, maybe Sears had the American microwave I was looking for all along. I will stop and look sometime just for curiosity’s sake. I will also continue to try to be a conscientious consumer, but I will always know that it is a lot easier said than done.

Opperman: Seeking change in government

Like many Americans, I have been severely disappointed by the presidency of Barack Obama. Most people will not say it, but the truth is, Obama lied. He claimed to run a grassroots campaign on the platform of change. He claimed he would get rid of the monetary influence in Washington and put people in place who would change American government for the betterment of the people. As soon as he got into office, it was clear he did not mean it. He kept many of the same people around who caused many of our problems, and took advice from others who had much more to gain from maintaining the status quo than making change for the good of all Americans.

We do need change in American government. We need to elect someone who will stand up for the rights of the people and will not bow down to the influence of special interests. We need a president with integrity who will fight for what he or she believes in.

We already know that Obama will be one half of our options for president this year. We live in a two-party system than ensures we have no other choices than that. Since we already know what another four years of Barack Obama means, we need to take a closer look at the other side.

First, I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican, so I do not vote in primaries, as I refuse to align myself with either party. It is unfortunate that we do not have any other options, but we must play the cards that we are dealt. That leads us to the Republican presidential nominee in 2012.

While it seems as if the Republican candidates have been battling it out for some time now, the real battle is just beginning. Over the next few months, we will weed out the wannabes from the real contenders. Right now, Mitt Romney is the slight frontrunner, with Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and a few others right behind him. While all of them claim to value true American ideals and believe they can get America back on track, I do not believe a word of it. They are all career politicians who have a much greater stake in preserving the corrupt system as it is than making America better for the average citizen.

I do believe that we would see real change if Ron Paul was elected, but I do not think he has a legitimate shot. A few of his stances are just too extreme for the American public to ever support him enough to be elected president. Even the Republican Party is smart enough not to nominate a candidate who has no chance of winning.

All of this makes it seem as if there is no hope for those of us Americans in the middle, but there is one Republican candidate who has gotten very little attention, although he deserves much more. His name is Buddy Roemer. Many people have not heard of him since he is not allowed in the Republican debates and most of the news shows will not mention his name. This is because he is running a campaign without the special interest money. He is raising funds in small amounts from average Americans. He is running on a platform of real change that would actually benefit America and all of its citizens.

Campaign finance reform is probably the single biggest issue we face as a country. We can no longer allow special interests to influence our elected officials as they currently do. We must first take the money out of political decision-making before we can ever realistically expect to the see the changes that we so desperately need.

With the second anniversary of the disastrous Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court, now is the time we need to stand up and take back what America really stands for. For those unaware, the Citizens United ruling said that corporations have the same rights as the American people and it basically paved the way for special interests to buy elections. It was possibly the biggest overreach of all time by the Supreme Court and it basically smacks the US Constitution in the face. Right now, more than ever, we need a president who will stand up to the big money and fight for the principles that this great country was founded on.

I honestly have no idea who I will vote for this year, but I do know that we need more candidates like Buddy Roemer. People who will stand up for what they believe in and fight for the rights of the average American. We can no longer sit idly by and allow the corrupt status quo to drive this country further into the ground.

Opperman: Revisiting The Federalist

“Nothing could be more ill-judged than that intolerant spirit, which has, at all times, characterized political parties.” — The Federalist

Partisanship is so rampant in this country it seems as if moderation is a relic of the past. Our politicians have become so engrossed in beating the other party they seem to have lost sight of everyone in the middle. We are under a constant barrage of differing political viewpoints, with each becoming more and more intolerant of any opposing view. It is getting ever harder to make sense of and discover the truth in all of the heated vitriol out there, and there often seems to be a severe lack of historical perspective in this debate.

The United States Constitution was written in 1787 but not ratified until 1789. During those two years, an intense debate raged across the land regarding the future direction of our newly freed country. Both sides of the battle felt that its vision of America was the lone proper course of action, and there was no room for compromise.

At the time, there was a series of 85 letters written to the American people, all published anonymously in newspapers. Those essays came to be known as The Federalist. The Federalist is now widely considered to be one of the most important pieces of literature in the history of political science. George Washington said at the time, “[The Federalist] will merit the notice of posterity, because in it are candidly and ably discussed the principles of freedom and the topics of government.”

I was surprised to discover how pertinent the debates of the 1780s are to the debates of today. All of the following quotes are taken from The Federalist No. 1, originally published in October 1787.

“Happy will it be if our choice should be directed by a judicious estimate of our true interests, unperplexed and unbiased by considerations not connected with the public good.”

Before we can answer any of the questions we are faced with, we need to determine just what our true interests really are. Do our politicians really have the public good in mind, or are they serving other interests?

“The plan offered to our deliberations affects too many particular interests, innovates upon too many local institutions, not to involve in its discussions … views, passions and prejudices little favorable to the discovery of truth.”

This is the problem with the majority of modern political discourse. The crises we face affect us all, but so much of the talk we hear is based on the passions and prejudices of a few meant only to hide the truth and disguise the messages we Americans need to consider the most.

“Among the most formidable obstacles … the obvious interest of a certain class of men in every State to resist all changes which may hazard a dimunition of power.”

The incredibly powerful special interests like how the system works today, with their money holding the power in politics. They will do almost anything to hold onto that power, usually at the expense of the common good.

“A torrent of angry and malignant passions will be let loose. To judge from the conduct of the opposite parties, we shall be led to conclude that they will mutually hope to evince the justness of their opinions, and to increase the number of their converts by the loudness of their declamations, and the bitterness of their invectives.”

Both major parties believe that only their position is correct, and the only way to prove this is to discredit the opposition, but we must always remember that moderation and compromise are the keys to achieving a policy beneficial to everyone.

“An enlightened zeal for the energy and efficiency of government will be stigmatized … the stale bait for popularity at the expense of the public good.”

While it is true that there is much wrong with the system today, it is nothing that cannot be fixed.

It is often stated that those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it. This has been just a sampling of the wisdom found in the first of the 85 essays that make up the incredible piece of work known as The Federalist.

We can all use The Federalist, “to putting you upon your guard against all attempts to influence your decision in a matter of the utmost moment to your welfare by any impressions other than those which may result from the evidence of truth.”